Episode 14: Murder By Any Other Name
by Castle Season 9
Summary: A pair of flower-shop murders gives Beckett and her team quite a thorny mess to untangle. Meanwhile, Castle and Beckett have an important decision to make. Season 9, Episode 14.
1. Chapter 1

**Murder By Any Other Name**

Season 9, Episode 14

Written by acertainzest

 _This is a work of fiction by writers with no professional connection to ABC network's Castle. Recognizable characters are the property of Andrew Marlowe and ABC. Names, places, and incidents are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental._

* * *

The heavy, cloying scent of dozens of flowers hung thick in the air as Lisa re-checked the day's receipts. She barely noticed the smell any more, but the stifling humidity motivated her to work quickly, eager to escape into the bracing air of a New York spring.

Finished entering the final tally into the accounting book, the young woman closed the cash register's drawer and slid the book into its place on the shelf behind the counter. She gave a small sigh of relief; at last her work shift was over and she could lock up the store and go have a little fun.

As she turned to grab her purse from its hook on the wall, a movement caught her eye. From the shadows of the darkened store a figure approached, and she startled, then relaxed when she recognized the shape.

"Oh, you're back," she said unconcernedly. "Did you-" But then she saw the gun, gripped firmly in a slightly trembling hand, and she blanched, flinching backward.

"I know what you've been doing," a voice rasped, thick with anger. Lisa put her hands up defensively, sliding sideways toward the door, her eyes widening with incipient panic.

"I haven't - I haven't done anything," she stammered guiltily, drawing a hiss of fury from the other. The muzzle of the gun wavered dizzily through the air, always coming back to point directly at Lisa's chest.

"Don't lie to me! You know what you've done! Thought you could pull one over on me, did you? Thought I was stupid!"

"No," she protested desperately. "Please, calm down. We can talk about it. I can cut you in on-"

But the other person said no more. The gun, suddenly steady, did the rest of the talking.

Lisa's body slumped to the floor, her hand catching the edge of a display shelf as she fell. Loose petals rained down, sticking in the pool of blood that spread rapidly from under her lifeless frame.

* * *

"How about Rebecca?" was the first thing Castle heard as he emerged from the bedroom, fully dressed but still rubbing sleep from his eyes.

"Uh?"

"The name Rebecca means faithful, captivating," his wife read aloud from a book that sat open on the countertop, surrounded by others. "From a Hebrew root meaning 'to join together.'"

"Baby name books?" Castle questioned, moving around the kitchen island to pour himself a cup of coffee. "Again?"

"Well, this is an important decision, Castle!" Kate exclaimed, picking up another book and riffling agitatedly through its pages. "We can't just keep calling her Gnocchi, much as I know you love that." She flashed him a quelling look. "Seriously, we have to get our name choices narrowed down."

He pursed his lips in an attempt to hold back a grin, nodding.

Although he didn't feel the same urgency about naming their daughter that Beckett did, it warmed his heart to see her obsessing about that happy topic, rather than focusing on the worries that had gripped them both after their latest encounter with the serial killer Megan Bailey. He and Kate had both had difficulty sleeping after that incident - compounded, on Kate's part, by the increasing physical discomforts of late pregnancy - and for the first week or so they had been continually on edge, jumping at every little thing.

As the weeks went by, all avenues that might have led them to Bailey's location had fizzled out. Her credit cards and cell phone had gone unused, her apartment remained empty, her car was nowhere to be found, and none of her coworkers or acquaintances had heard from her. Beckett's FBI contacts had traced Bailey's movements into New Jersey, but then the trail went cold. She had simply disappeared.

It was unsettling, to say the least, but the FBI had concluded that she had gone into hiding, possibly even left the country. Castle and Beckett weren't so sure, but they had no firm evidence otherwise, so maybe the feds were right. Maybe that final message Megan had slipped under their door was just a parting shot before she went off the grid. With Dr. Burke's help, they had both finally started to feel secure again, and had learned some coping strategies to help ward off the panic attacks before they started.

For Castle, it was a relief to see Kate waking up before him again, which was the natural order of things. Her energy levels were quite good for the third trimester, but she was usually tired by evening and had gotten into the habit of going to bed early and waking up with the sunrise - although sometimes she chose to linger in bed. But today, apparently, she had gotten an early start on the baby-naming question.

"Rebecca, hmm? Rebecca Castle," he said, testing the name on his tongue. "Becky Castle." He shook his head. "No, Becky is too much like Beckett. That's just weird."

Kate made a pained face. "You're right. Damn." She glanced down again at the book in her hand. "Okay, how about Gertrude?"

"Gertrude?" he repeated incredulously. "Are you planning on giving birth to an 80-year-old Jewish woman?"

"The book says that classic names are coming back into fashion," his wife groused, before slapping the book down and rubbing the bridge of her nose. "No, you're right, you're right. Gertrude is terrible." She sighed.

"Hey." He slid an arm around her waist, pressing a kiss to her forehead as his hand lightly rubbed her swollen belly. "You know, we've still got plenty of time to find exactly the right name for her."

"It's just such a big decision," she murmured, slumping against him. "I mean, whatever we choose, she's going to be stuck with it for the rest of her life."

"Or at least until, in a fit of adolescent rebellion, she re-christens herself Spike and forms an all-girl punk rock band. Ooh," he brightened, grinning, "that would be so cool."

"Rick," his wife groaned, shaking her head. "Why is this so hard?" She cocked her head at him, curious. "How did you decide on Alexis?"

"Oh, well." He shrugged. "Alexander was originally my middle name, as you know, and it was also Meredith's father's name, and she didn't like Alexandra, so."

"Mm." Kate frowned. "Well, that's no help. We can't use Alexandra now, and we're not naming her after any of our parents."

"Right..." He studied her face and said gently, "You don't want to consider Johanna?"

"No." She shook her head slowly, but definitively. "It would just feel too weird, I think. But... how would you feel about it as a middle name?"

"Sure. Of course," he agreed immediately. "That's perfect."

"Your mom isn't going to be offended if we don't use her name, is she?"

"No, no." He grinned as a memory popped into his head. "When we were expecting Alexis, I suggested to Mother that we might use Martha as her middle name, and she urged me not to. 'It's far too stuffy and old-fashioned for a modern girl like yours, darling,'" he caroled in his best imitation of his mother's tone. As usual, it made Kate burst out laughing, and he grinned some more, pleased with himself. He never got tired of being able to make his wife laugh.

"Okay," she said, still chuckling, shaking her head, "but that means we're still nowheresville on her first name."

"We'll think of something." He picked up one of the books and thumbed through it. "Ahh! How about Esmerelda?"

Kate scoffed, but whatever sarcastic reply might have been forming on her lips went unspoken as her phone buzzed. She shook her head again and scooped it up.

"Beckett."

Rick smiled to himself as he pushed the baby-name books into a neat pile, listening to Kate's side of the conversation with Ryan. From the way her tone of voice changed as she responded, he could tell that she was about to hang up and tell him they were on their way to a murder scene. Beckett was _supposedly_ letting her detectives handle the homicide investigations at this stage in her pregnancy, though the reality was that she often found an excuse to get personally involved.

He strode across the room to the hall closet, listening to her "mm-hmms" and "okays" as he got out their coats.

"Okay," she said again. "See you soon." Castle turned, already holding her coat out as she approached, dropping her phone into her purse.

"Thanks, babe," she smiled, pushing her arms into the sleeves. "There's been a murder at a flower shop just a few blocks from here. Ryan thought we could stop by on our way to the precinct."

"He knows you miss being out in the field," Castle commented with a smile, carefully buttoning up the maternity coat over his wife's chest and the large round curve of their child. "He's too good to you."

"And so are you," she murmured, catching his cheek with her hand and pulling him down for a brief but sweet kiss.

* * *

"Morning, Captain," greeted Officer Hernandez, holding up the crime-scene tape so that Beckett and Castle could duck through the doorway into the florist's shop. "Morning, Mr. Castle, sir," he added, showing almost more deference to his boss's husband than to the captain herself.

"Good morning, Officer," Beckett responded, elbowing her husband in the ribs when she caught him glaring at the young cop. She knew that Kyle Hernandez had gone on yet another date with Alexis recently, and that Castle was itching to ask him about it, but now was not the time.

"Morning," Castle grudgingly replied, and Beckett nudged him through the door before he could say anything more.

The interior of the florist's looked the same as almost any other: a small, low-ceilinged space lined with shelves bearing a riot of colors on every side. The scents of half a dozen different flower varieties filled the air. CSU technicians and uniformed officers were moving carefully around the cramped space, while at the back of the room Lanie was crouched over the body of a middle-aged African-American woman. The drying pool of blood under the body told Kate that death had not been particularly recent.

"Hey, Castles," Ryan greeted, approaching them with his ubiquitous notebook in hand. "Check it out, all these flowers - kinda takes you back to that first case, doesn't it?"

"Roses on her body, sunflowers on her eyes," Beckett recited, drawing a smug grin to her husband's face that she steadfastly ignored. "I don't see any sunflowers in here, though."

"Nah, and this wasn't staged. Not very similar at all, actually," Ryan agreed with a shrug. "Marian Jefferson, 59, an employee of the shop. Worked here full-time for the past few years. The owner," a tilt of his head indicating a dark-haired hulk of a man standing behind the counter, "says he left here around five last night; the shop closes at six. It was Marian's job to work the last hour and then clean up and close everything up for the night."

"Which it looks like she was in the middle of doing," Esposito chimed in, joining them. "Display cases are locked, cash register was locked, front door was locked, but the lights were still on. Looks like she was going out through the back door and our killer surprised her there."

"That timing fits lividity and liver temp," Lanie added from her spot on the floor, "and the cause of death seems pretty obvious, although we'll see if I find anything else when I get her back to the morgue." She indicated the wounds on the victim's torso. "Two GSWs, looks like a .38, but ballistics will have to confirm."

"Okay," Beckett started to say, just as Ryan's cell phone rang. He flashed a quick apologetic glance at the others and turned away, muttering his name into the phone.

"That guy's the owner?" Castle asked, casting a dubious eye in the direction of the man in question, who currently had his face buried in a handkerchief. "He looks more like a retired pro wrestler than a florist."

"Maybe he's both," Esposito chuckled. "That could be something out of one of your books."

"Guy like that wouldn't need to shoot someone," Castle observed. "He could probably just pull their head off with his bare hands."

"Castle," Beckett admonished, wincing at the gruesome mental image.

"What are you talking about? I'm already there," Ryan was saying into his phone. Castle raised his eyebrows curiously, looking at Beckett, who shrugged.

"Let's send some unis over to the victim's home to look around, and we need to find out about the next of kin," she said to Esposito. He nodded and opened his mouth to respond, but just then his partner rejoined them, frowning.

"Okaaaay," Ryan said, "this is kind of weird."

"What's weird?" Castle asked, a shade too eagerly, drawing a small eye-roll from his wife.

"Dispatch just called," Ryan replied, his brow furrowed as he stared down at the notebook in his hand. "There's another florist a few blocks away, calling to report that he found an employee dead in his shop."

"Huh," Esposito said in surprise, and they all paused for a moment, taking in the news.

"Okay," Beckett said then, decisively. "You guys head over there and get things started. Castle and I will finish up here and meet you back at the precinct."

"Gotcha."

"Right."

As Ryan and Esposito departed, Beckett approached the owner of the shop, with Castle close behind.

"I'm Captain Beckett," she introduced herself, and the large man took her hand, his grip surprisingly gentle. His eyes were red and damp.

"Frank Rossi. I just don't know," he said earnestly, sniffling. "I don't know what the hell happened here. I can't imagine anyone wanting to hurt Marian, and there wasn't even anything much worth stealing."

"What can you tell us about her?" Beckett asked. Frank scratched his cheek, wiped his eyes, and shrugged.

"She'd been working for me four, five years. Since her husband died. She needed the cash, but also, I think she just needed to get out of the house, you know? She was a people person. She loved helping people find just the right flower arrangement." The corners of his mouth turned downward and he heaved a trembling sigh, lifting the handkerchief to his face again.

"Any other family?" Castle prompted. The florist nodded sorrowfully.

"Yeah, she has three grown kids, but only one of them lives around here. Oh," he added, straightening up as a thought struck him. "Actually, he was here just yesterday. Her son, Matthew. He came by to see her not long before I left, maybe four-thirty."

"Was that unusual?" Beckett asked.

"Nah. He comes around every couple months, looking for money. Marian usually says no, he's just gonna spend it on booze."

"And is that what happened yesterday?"

"Yeah." Frank nodded. "He wanted her to lend him some cash; she told him to go back to the last place he got fired from and beg them to take him back. They yelled at each other a bit and he left." The florist let out another sigh, putting aside his damp handkerchief and grabbing a handful of tissues from a box on the countertop.

Beckett and Castle exchanged a look. "Do you have contact information for Matthew?" she asked.

Frank nodded again, going slightly pale, twisting the wad of tissues between his hands. "Yeah, I can pull it out of my files for you. God, you don't think - you don't think he killed her? Her own son?"

"We'll look into it," Beckett replied neutrally.

"By the way," Castle interjected, apparently unable to contain himself any more, "do you wrestle, Frank?"

Still sniffling, the big man stared at him in confusion. "Not since high school, why?"

"No reason."

Beckett rolled her eyes and stepped back in. "Who else works here, besides you and Marian?"

"Just my wife, but she's in Michigan this week visiting her sister." Frank looked up, his eyes catching on something at the back of the shop. "Oh, and Guillermo."

Beckett and Castle turned to see a young man standing in the rear doorway, horror spreading across his face when he caught sight of Marian's lifeless body on the floor.

"Dios mio," he gasped, crossing himself. "What happened?"

"He drives the delivery truck," Frank added. "Guillermo, c'mere, these are the cops."

"Oh," the younger man said warily, stepping around Marian's body, his eyes averted from the sight. "Um. Hello."

"Just a couple of quick questions," Kate told him, her tone brisk. He nodded, fidgeting. "When was the last time you saw Marian?"

"Uh, last night," Guillermo responded. "I picked up the last order of the day, she helped me load it into the van like always." He gestured toward the alleyway outside the rear door.

"Did she seem nervous, upset at all?" Kate prompted. "Anything unusual about her behavior?"

"No. Uh-uh," Guillermo denied, shaking his head. "She was just herself. A nice lady. She told me to have a good night, I said 'you too' and that was it." He twisted his fingers together shakily.

"Okay. Thank you," Beckett said, and turned back to Frank. "If you think of anything else, please let us know."

"Of course," the florist agreed, wiping his eyes once more.

* * *

The scene at the second flower shop was similar to the first when Ryan and Esposito arrived. CSU was poking around, caution tape blocked the front door, and a woman's body was slumped on the floor in a puddle of blood and flower petals. Unlike the first victim, this one was young, Caucasian, and blonde. Perlmutter crouched over her, wearing his characteristic scowl.

"I told you not to go in there. If you touch my orchids I swear I'll have your job. I'll sue the city." A whiny nasal voice was buzzing around the humid interior of the shop, and Esposito saw several uniforms surreptitiously rolling their eyes.

"Sir, as I already told you, we're being as careful as we can," Officer Aragon was saying with admirable patience. "But we do need to look at each area of the store as part of our investigation."

"I told those buffoons not to go blundering in there. If they knock anything over, that's years of work down the tubes," the complaining continued. Aragon looked up and spotted the detectives, and smiled with mostly-concealed relief.

"Sir, these are the homicide detectives who will be handling the case." She gently steered a short, skinny older man in their direction. "Detectives Esposito and Ryan, this is Albert Goldman, the owner."

"Good morning, sir," Ryan said politely. "Can you-"

The florist cut him off. "Would you tell your goons to get out of my back room already? That's where I breed my prize orchids. They're very delicate. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to create the perfect hybrid?"

"Okay, sir. Don't worry about it." Ryan nodded to Aragon. "Officer, if you don't mind, let's clear that area."

"Yes, sir," Aragon agreed, and gratefully escaped, flashing a quick smile at Javier on her way. Ryan caught it and smirked at his partner, who glared him into submission.

"Sir," Esposito said, drawing the florist's attention onto himself, "what can you tell us about the victim?"

"Lisa?" The older man huffed, glancing at the body on the floor and then quickly away. "Terrible, just terrible. Lisa? I can't believe it." He wrung his hands anxiously.

"Tell us about her," Esposito prompted again, and the little man blinked and nodded apologetically.

"Right, yes, of course. Good worker, never late. Decent eye for arrangements. No trouble. These NYU students are a dime a dozen, but sometimes you do get a good one."

"She was a student?" Ryan repeated, making a note. "So she worked here part-time?"

"Yes, that's right. I only hire part-timers. Cheaper," the florist nodded, glancing twitchily back toward the side door that led to his orchid-breeding room. "Are they all out of there yet?"

"We're taking care of that, sir," Esposito said firmly. "What time did you leave the store last night?"

"Five-thirty maybe?" Albert replied, frowning in thought. "Yes, that's about right. We close at six, but Lisa was in charge of closing up. She was a good worker. Some of those other clowns, I wouldn't trust them with my lunch, let alone my keys."

"So you left at five-thirty, and she was here, and all was well," Ryan summarized. "Then you come to open up this morning and find her like this?"

"Exactly. Exactly." The little man nodded rapidly, flinching when his eyes drifted back toward the body of his late employee.

"Okay," Esposito said. "What else can you tell us about Lisa? Did she have a boyfriend, or any enemies?"

"How would I know?" Albert snorted. "I don't meddle in my employees' personal business. Long as they show up and do the work, don't make any trouble, that's all I need. I'm not looking to make friends with these kids."

"Right. Of course," Ryan agreed. "Sir, we're almost done here, but we're going to need a list of all your employees, with their contact information."

"Yes, yes. Of course, yes," the older man muttered, bustling off toward a filing cabinet along the side wall. The detectives approached the body to take a look.

"Looks like a .38," Esposito commented to his partner, observing the wounds on Lisa's torso. "Two shots, just like the other one."

"Yep," Ryan agreed. "Hey, Perlmutter, we're looking at a time of death around six, six-thirty last night. That sound about right to you?"

"Are you trying to do my job for me, Detective?" the M.E. complained, scowling over the corpse. "I don't tell you how to interrogate a witness, do I?"

"Just answer the damn question," Esposito grumbled.

Perlmutter glared thunderously at him, but grudgingly admitted, "That would fit the time frame that I'm postulating, yes. But I refuse to commit until I get her on the slab."

"Okay. Keep us posted," Ryan said, nudging Esposito away.

"Did you touch my orchids? You better not have touched 'em," came the owner's querulous voice as the last uniformed officer exited the side room, closing the door carefully behind him. Ryan caught the officer's eye and they shared a tiny eye-roll of commiseration before he turned away to rejoin his partner.

In the front doorway, the detectives paused to regroup.

"Looks pretty similar," Esposito commented. "Both shot twice with a .38, around the same time period. Killer came in the back door, both front doors were locked. Both victims were alone, closing up."

"Yeah," Ryan agreed. "The shops are close enough together, our guy could have easily killed one of them and then walked or driven over to the other within the time frame." He frowned. "But other than working at florists, our two victims don't seem to have anything obvious in common."

"Let's check with NYU," Esposito suggested. "Maybe they can give us more info on Lisa."

* * *

At the precinct, Castle sat on the edge of Esposito's desk, watching with a small smile as his wife set up the double murder board. He knew that although Kate loved being the Captain of the 12th, and was happy to be pregnant, she sometimes missed field work - the rush of picking apart the details of a murder, getting to the answers at the heart of it. Getting justice for the victims and their families. And with this double case, he could see that she sensed an opportunity to get more involved than usual.

"That's all we've got so far," she said, straightening up with a slight grunt of effort, surveying the so far sparsely populated murder board. "Ryan and Esposito are at the second victim's dorm, talking to her roommate."

"Two different flower-shop employees killed at almost the same time, with the same gun," Castle mused. "There's a government conspiracy theory in here somewhere, I just know it."

"Well, if anyone can find it, it's you," Beckett replied with a smirk. "But we don't know for sure yet that it was the same gun."

"Oh, it was," he nodded confidently. "It has to be. It's just a better story that way."

"Captain?"

They both turned to see a pair of uniforms standing at the side of the bullpen, supporting another man between them.

"You sent us to Marian Jefferson's apartment to look for clues," one of them said. "We found one."

"Her son," the other officer added. "Found him passed out on the couch."


	2. Chapter 2

"Okay, if not Esmerelda, how about Anastasia? Or Ariel?"

"Castle, we are not naming our daughter after a Disney Princess."

"Spoilsport," he pouted. "There are so many great choices. Aurora? Tiana? Oh!" he exclaimed suddenly, lighting up. "How about Mulan? She's a princess _and_ a badass warrior."

"No," Beckett said firmly.

"How about Fiona, from Shrek?" suggested a new voice. Beckett and Castle startled, turning to see Ryan and Esposito standing beside them at the murderboard. The two detectives were smirking, clearly amused by the discussion that had gotten the parents-to-be so distracted that they hadn't even noticed the others approaching.

"Shut up," Beckett grumbled, shaking her head.

"Whatever you say, boss," Ryan grinned.

"Yo, are the unis back with our guy yet?" Esposito added.

"I don't think so. What guy?" Beckett asked.

"We talked to Lisa's roommate," Ryan explained, "and she gave us the name of an ex-boyfriend. Sounds like it was a fairly recent breakup."

"Suggestive," Castle commented. "But why would the spurned ex, having killed Lisa, then go to a completely different flower shop and kill a complete stranger?"

"Good question," Beckett agreed. "Of course, we could ask the same question about Matthew."

"Who?" asked Ryan.

"Victim number one's son," Castle explained. "Unis found him passed out on her couch."

"Yeah, he's waiting for us in Interrogation One," Beckett added. "I wanted to hear your update before we talk to him."

"Detectives?" called Officer Aragon from across the room. "We've got a Tyler Burkhart for you."

"Oh, yeah. That's the ex-boyfriend," Ryan said. "Put him in Interrogation Two, would you?"

"Sure thing."

* * *

"Good morning, Matthew," said Beckett coolly as she entered Interrogation One. Marian's son looked up blearily from his contemplation of the table surface, and winced when the overhead light shone directly onto his face.

"Do you gotta talk so loud?" he groaned, looking down again, lifting a hand to shield his eyes.

"Killer hangover, eh?" Castle joked, earning a glare from his wife. He quickly shut his mouth and moved to pull out a chair for her.

"I'm Captain Beckett," she said, sitting down and fixing Matthew with a steady gaze. "Tell me about the fight you had with your mother yesterday at her workplace."

"Oh. That?" The young man winced, lacing his fingers together nervously. "It was nothing. Everyone argues with their mama, don't they?"

Castle cast a concerned glance sideways at his wife as he took the seat next to her, but she didn't react.

"Where did you go after your mother refused to give you any money?"

Matthew scowled, clearly unhappy that they knew his personal business. "Went to the unemployment office to look for work," he grumbled. "But they didn't have nothin', so I went to the construction company where I used to work, and they said no too. Bastards."

"And then?" Beckett prompted.

Matthew huffed and squirmed in his seat, and admitted, "I met up with some buddies at the bar. They were buyin', so I had a beer or two."

"And then a beer or two more?" Castle suggested. The other man's mouth twisted unhappily, but he didn't deny it.

"Then I got to thinkin' about what I said to Mama," he went on uncomfortably, "and I felt bad, so I went over her place to 'pologize, but she wasn't home from work yet. So I lay down on her sofa and I guess I fell asleep."

Beckett and Castle exchanged a look. Then Beckett opened her folder and took out a copy of Lisa Morgan's driver's license photo.

"Do you know this woman?"

Matthew looked at the picture, and shrugged. "No," he said. "I don't know her. What's this about?" he added beseechingly, as Beckett slid the photo back into the folder. "Is Mama still mad at me for yesterday? I just wanna tell her I'm sorry. I didn't mean the things I said. When can I get outta here and go apologize to her?"

Beckett glanced at her husband again, and sighed.

"Matthew, I'm sorry to have to tell you this..."

* * *

"Tyler Burkhart," said Ryan as he and Esposito entered Interrogation Two. "Thanks for coming in today."

"I wasn't given much of a choice," the young man replied. "What's this about?"

Tyler's picture could have been in the dictionary next to the term 'preppy frat boy,' Ryan thought as he took a seat across the table from the young man. The kid looked as clean-cut as they came, but of course, looks could be deceiving.

"Tell us about Lisa Morgan," Ryan said calmly, holding his gaze on Tyler.

"Lisa?" The young man scoffed, shifting uncomfortably in his chair. "What's to tell? Bitch dumped me. Apparently Valentine's Day is important to chicks. Like, who knew?"

Ryan's eyebrows went up as his estimation of the kid's character went down a notch.

"She broke up with you at Valentine's Day? So you haven't seen her for the past month, then?" he prompted.

"Well, yeah, unless you count running into her at the mall last week." Tyler scowled at the memory.

"What was she doing at the mall?" Esposito asked.

"Shopping, duh." The kid rolled his eyes. "Bitch wouldn't barely give me the time of day. And she'd been in all the really pricey stores, you know? The ones where like one little scarf costs two weeks' pay. She had a bunch of bags over her arm. So I was like, 'where'd you get the money for all that stuff?' and she just went, 'pfft' and blew me off."

Ryan and Esposito exchanged a look. "So," Esposito said carefully, "you're saying she suddenly had more money than she used to?"

"Sure looked like it. She always used to talk about how much she wished she could afford to shop in those stores, and now here she is loaded up with bags."

Ryan took out a photo of Marian Jefferson and slid it across the table. "Do you know this woman?"

Tyler looked at the picture, his forehead creasing with confusion. "No. Should I?"

* * *

"Well, that was a bust," Beckett sighed, putting Matthew Jefferson's photo up on the whiteboard under the heading _Of Interest_. "We'll check the alibi, but my gut says Matthew isn't the guy."

"No," Castle agreed. "The way he broke down when you told him his mother was killed? That wasn't an act."

"The ex-boyfriend is still a possibility," Ryan added, putting Tyler's picture onto the board in the section labeled _Suspects_. "We'll check out his alibi. But we still haven't figured a reason why he would have killed Marian."

"Nothing useful from my phone call to Lisa's parents either," Esposito said. "They didn't seem to know anything about her love life, friends, job, any of it. Sounds like she didn't talk to them much."

"I'll run the victims' financials," Vikram chimed in, "see if I can identify that extra money Lisa was throwing around, find out where it was coming from."

"No luck yet on finding connections between our two vics?" Beckett asked. The tech analyst shook his head.

"Nothing popped yet, but I'll keep looking. I also cross-checked the lists of customers from the two flower shops via their credit card receipts, but nothing there either. Of course, a lot of people pay cash for flowers."

"Hmm."

As Beckett turned to her detectives to begin discussing the next steps for the investigation, Castle pulled Vikram aside.

"Hey," Castle said, "do you still have the purchase records from the florists? I want to play a hunch."

Vikram looked at him a little oddly. "Of course," he replied. "The records were all in hardcopy, but I ran them through OCR and generated a spreadsheet."

"Great." Castle took the other man's arm and steered him toward the little office where all of Vikram's techie gear was set up. "This is probably crazy, but let me explain."

* * *

"I don't know, Castle, I just think that most of the popular names are too common now," Beckett was saying as they made their way down the hallway toward the morgue. "I want something a little different, but not _too_ different."

"I'm not saying we should name her Jennifer," Castle replied, holding the door open for her, "but there's a reason the classic names retain their popularity across the generations. Because they're classic! Like Elizabeth. Margaret. Victoria."

"Now you're just naming queens of England."

"Well, you didn't want a princess name, so..." He grinned as his wife huffed with exasperation.

Looking up, they found both Lanie and Perlmutter standing by the exam tables, watching their approach. Lanie wore a fond smile, Perlmutter his usual frown.

"Did you have to bring him?" Perlmutter complained, drawing a chastising side-eye from Lanie.

Beckett ignored him. "What've we got?"

"Not much that you didn't already know," Lanie replied, gesturing to the two exam tables, where the two victims' bodies were laid out. "It's tricky to determine precise timing, but we're reasonably sure that Marian was killed first, then Lisa about thirty minutes later. Two GSWs for each victim, and we just got ballistics back, confirming that they were shot with the same gun. The gun is in the system, but its owner reported it stolen several years ago."

"No other marks or evidence on either body," Perlmutter added, "although both had substances on their hands and clothing consistent with the types of preservatives used in flower shops."

"Hmm," Beckett mused, frowning. "So we still have no evidence of any connection between the two victims except for their jobs."

"I think I just said that," Perlmutter grumbled. "By the way, Captain, if you're still seeking a name for your unfortunate spawn, may I suggest Morticia?"

"No, you may not," Castle said, although inwardly he was thinking, _Damn, I should have thought of that one_.

"How about Elaine?" Lanie put in, grinning widely. "It's a beautiful name. Classic, timeless."

"I'll put it on the list," Beckett promised, smiling at her friend as the phone on the wall began to ring.

"Here's another one," Perlmutter interjected. "Sandy. Think about it." He smirked nastily, then turned away to answer the phone.

"Kate..." Lanie said, and drew Beckett aside. Sensing girl talk about to commence, Castle turned away, frowning a little as he puzzled over Perlmutter's last comment.

Sandy? Why on earth would Perlmutter suggest... Sandy Castle. "Oh," he said aloud, and rolled his eyes. "Everyone's a comedian."

* * *

"What's up?" Kate asked as Lanie pulled her to a quiet corner of the morgue. "Is it your mom? Did something happen to her?"

"She's about the same," Lanie sighed, her expression troubled. "I talked to her doctors when I was there over Christmas, and they wanted to try a new drug regime in hopes of avoiding dialysis. It seems to be working so far."

"Well, that sounds promising," Beckett said, putting a hand on her friend's arm. "Doesn't it?"

"Yeah." But Lanie didn't smile. "Thing is... I heard about a job opening down there in Louisiana, at the same hospital where my mom's getting her treatment."

"Oh," Kate let out, her chest tightening suddenly with dismay.

"It's a teaching hospital, so it would be a teaching position in their morgue," Lanie went on, "which means flexible hours, so I'd be able to oversee Mom's care and keep an eye on Dad too. The money isn't great, but the cost of living is so much lower out there anyway, and I could stay with my folks rent-free."

"It sounds like a pretty good solution," Kate ventured, determined to be the supportive friend, even though the thought of Lanie moving so far away made her heart sink. As if sensing her upset, the baby began to wriggle energetically inside her. She dropped a hand onto her belly, rubbing it soothingly. "So... have you made up your mind? That's what you're definitely doing?"

"No. I don't know," Lanie sighed. "I mean, I applied for the job, and I did a phone interview and they said they'd call me back soon. But here's the thing - have you heard that the deputy chief medical examiner here in New York is retiring?"

"Right, I saw that announcement," Kate nodded, though she had only a vague recollection of skimming the email.

"Well, this morning I just heard through the grapevine that I'm on the short list of candidates to replace him," Lanie revealed. Kate's eyes widened in surprise.

"Oh, Lanie, that's amazing. Congratulations."

"It's not a done deal or anything," her friend deflected.

"No, but it would be a major promotion, right?" Kate prompted. "More money, more responsibility..."

"...not having to look at that sourpuss every day," Lanie added, tilting her head in Perlmutter's direction, and they both snickered.

"Seriously, that's great. I'm proud of you," Kate said, and Lanie smiled softly, squeezing her shoulder.

"Thanks, girlfriend." Then she grimaced and sighed. "But the point is, I'll have to make a decision, and soon."

"Ahh." Kate pursed her lips, her hand still rubbing slow circles on her enlarged belly. "Wow, that's a really hard one, Lanie."

"Yeah." Her friend chuckled ruefully. "Don't I know it."

"I wish I could help," she offered, but Lanie shook her head.

"No, it's okay. I need to figure this out on my own. But thanks for listening."

"Any time," Kate assured her. "Your career dilemma kinda makes mine look simple by comparison," she added, trying to make it sound light, but Lanie's forehead creased with concern at the words.

"You mean about what you want to do after the baby?"

"Yeah," Kate nodded, shifting her weight to the other foot. "I still haven't decided whether to come back as captain after my maternity leave. And if not, then what?"

"Honey, now is not the time to be making big life decisions like that," Lanie said earnestly. "I can tell you for sure, from seeing my friends and cousins go through it, you never know how becoming a mom is going to change you. The best thing to do is wait and see how you feel after she's here."

"You're right." Kate sighed and shook her head. "I know you are, but I'm just not good at leaving things undecided like that, you know?"

"Oh, I do know that about you, Kate Beckett," her friend teased. "But if there's one thing you can count on from a baby, it's that nothing ever goes exactly the way you expect it to."

"So I've heard." Then Kate felt her forehead creasing as her brows drew downward in a frown. "Oh, Lanie, what am I going to do without you if you move away?" Moisture prickled at the corners of her eyes and she swiped impatiently at it, mentally cursing pregnancy hormones for the thousandth time.

"Oh, honey, don't. You'll get me started," Lanie laughed, leaning forward to give her an awkward hug with the bulk of the baby between them. "You know I'll always be just a phone call away if you need me."

"I know," Kate sighed, but she couldn't help feeling a pang of sadness as she embraced her best friend.

"Well, that's interesting," Perlmutter commented loudly, drawing their attention as he hung up the phone. Kate and Lanie disengaged, clearing their throats as they moved back to the center of the room and back into work mode.

"What's interesting?" asked Castle, who had been playing Angry Birds on his phone while they were talking.

"That was the lab," Perlmutter said, ignoring Castle and addressing himself to Beckett. "It seems that among the expected substances in both flower shops, they also found traces of cocaine."

"Ooh!" Castle exclaimed, as both Beckett and Lanie blinked in surprise. "I love it when the plot thickens."


	3. Chapter 3

"I don't know how that's possible. I swear," said Frank Rossi earnestly. The florist was seated in Interrogation One, his large frame dwarfing the chair as he stared at Beckett and Castle in bemusement. "Drugs in my shop? No way. That's crazy."

"Crazy or not, our lab found traces of cocaine on your back door, both inside and out," Beckett replied calmly, "and as you know, CSU is re-checking the rest of your store now."

"I don't get it. No way," Frank repeated. "There's no way Marian was involved in drugs. I would have noticed. And as for me and my wife, a glass of sambuca after dinner is as wild as we get."

"Hmm," Beckett commented neutrally, keeping her gaze steady on Frank. She was using the time-honored interrogation technique of staying quiet and letting the suspect fill the gap in the conversation. But Castle could see from the set of her jaw that she didn't expect anything to come of it.

Neither did he. Frank Rossi was many things, but Castle was willing to bet that he wasn't much of a card player. The guy had no poker face whatsoever.

* * *

"Drugs? I couldn't say I'm surprised," Albert Goldman sniffed, folding his arms across his chest. "I told you already, some of those college kids get into all kinds of shenanigans, but not on my watch." He scowled, looking twitchily from Ryan to Esposito and back again. "You did tell your goons to stay out of my back room, didn't you?"

"Yes, sir," Ryan said, very carefully restraining his eyeroll. "We're not going to harm your orchids. But as I've already explained, due to the traces of cocaine that were found on Lisa's clothing and both doors of your shop, we do need to re-check the area."

"Lisa," the old man muttered, shaking his head. "I wouldn't have thought it of her, no, not her. Drugs? She seemed much too responsible for that kind of nonsense."

The florist put on a good act, but he had gone pale when they told him about the cocaine. Ryan suspected that he was more rattled than he wanted to let on. Maybe it was the idea of one of his employees selling, or using, drugs under his nose.

"So you never had reason to suspect that she was involved with cocaine," Esposito prompted coolly. Albert shook his head.

"No," he denied firmly. "I wouldn't have kept her on if I had."

"Lisa's bank records indicate that she was making large cash deposits on an irregular basis," Ryan said, tapping a file folder that sat on the table between them. "What do you know about that?"

"What? Nothing," Albert said defensively, twitching some more. "I never paid her in cash. Business checks only. All above the table, strictly legal, detectives." He frowned and glanced at the door. "Can I get back to my orchids yet? They're very delicate, you know."

* * *

"Either one of the store owners could be lying," Esposito commented as the team reconvened in front of the murder board, "and their alibis are both pretty weak."

"Went home, ate dinner in front of the TV, went to bed," Ryan said, rolling his eyes. "Both of them. Except that Rossi called his wife at her sister's house to say goodnight."

"But there's no motive we can see," Esposito picked up. "They don't seem to know each other, and there are at least three other florists between their two shops, so it's not like they're each other's biggest competitor. And anyway, dealing drugs out of a flower shop? Come on."

"Yeah, it doesn't add up, and neither of these guys seems like the drug-dealing type," Ryan agreed, drawing a careful question mark next to the word _Cocaine_ on the whiteboard.

"Lisa seems more like the type," Castle pointed out. "Aren't well-dressed white college girls more likely to be selling drugs than any other demographic? I'm pretty sure I saw that on _60 Minutes_."

"That's not exactly admissible in court, babe," Beckett replied, punctuating her point with a mild eyeroll. Turning back to her detectives, she added, "But we do have to consider Lisa as a possible source of the drugs. You guys looked at her dorm room, right?"

Ryan and Esposito nodded. "Yeah," Espo said, "but we weren't thinking drugs. I mean, we poked around a little, but we didn't search it thoroughly."

"We mostly just talked to the roommate," Ryan put in.

"Send unis to give the dorm room a more thorough look," Beckett said, "and Marian's apartment too, I suppose."

"Although she fits the drug-dealer image even less than either of the owners," Castle put in.

Beckett shrugged agreement. "Yeah, but we have to cover every angle. Speaking of which," she added, turning to pick up a pile of papers, "these are the lists of employees at both flower shops, and it looks like we talked to everyone on here, except for the delivery truck drivers."

"We talked to the one at the first crime scene," Castle reminded her, looking over her shoulder at the list. "There - Guillermo."

"Oh, right." She reached for a pencil and made a note on the list. "But it looks like no one talked to the delivery guy at the second flower shop, uh, Larry."

"Oh yeah," Esposito nodded. "He wasn't around when we were there, but we got his contact info."

"Okay," Beckett said, "let's have unis go pick him up, just to make sure we covered everything."

"Right."

As Esposito turned away to relay the instructions, Beckett took another look at the employee lists, and then at the murder board. She groaned.

"We're getting nowhere on this," she griped. "And my feet are killing me."

"Why don't you go sit down in your office," Castle suggested, "and I'll bring you a cup of decaf."

"Thanks, Castle." She smiled gratefully at him, and he decided to take a chance on bending the 'no PDA in the precinct' rule. He leaned over and kissed her softly on the cheek.

"Anything for the mother of my child."

* * *

A few minutes later, the group reconvened in Beckett's office.

"Did CSU find anything new in the second sweep of the flower shops?" she asked.

Ryan shook his head. "Not so far. But," he added, waving a handful of papers, "both the son and the ex-boyfriend alibied out. Matthew's friends confirmed he was drinking with them until about nine, whereupon he started, and I quote, 'whining about his mama' and they put in him a cab."

"And Tyler was at a wine tasting at his fraternity house," Esposito picked up, rolling his eyes. "There are at least a half-dozen pictures on Instagram where he's clearly visible, time-stamped during our kill window."

"A wine tasting on a weeknight?" Ryan asked incredulously. His partner merely shrugged.

"Whatever, bro. Hey, by the way, Beckett," Esposito added mischievously, "some of those wines have some pretty nice names. Cabernet? Bordeaux? Think about it."

"Cabernet Castle? You must be crazy," Ryan scoffed. "At least you didn't suggest Corona."

"Or Jack Daniels," Castle added, chuckling.

"Just trying to add some class to this discussion," Esposito replied loftily.

"This is _not_ a discussion," Beckett declared, glaring at them from her seat behind her desk. "Castle and I are perfectly capable of choosing a name for our child without your input."

"Of course you are," Ryan agreed, "but just remember, if you do need any advice, voice of experience right here."

"Dude," said Esposito, "need I remind you, you and Jenny were still arguing names up until the moment Sarah Grace showed up."

Ryan bristled. "Listen, I'll have you know-"

"Guys!" The detectives both shut up at their boss's snap.

"Sorry, Beckett."

"Sorry."

Castle smirked in the background as his wife shook her head.

"Do we have anything else?" she asked. "Because right now, it kinda seems like we're stuck."

"Maybe I can help," said a voice from the doorway. They all turned to see Vikram standing there, grinning.

"You got something, bro?" Esposito asked. Vikram nodded, moving into the room, a piece of paper in his hand.

"I think so, but I'm not sure what it means."

"Let's hear it," Beckett urged.

"Okay. Well, Castle asked me to compare orders at the two flower shops - not the customer who placed the order, but the recipient who the flowers were delivered to."

"Castle asked you?" Beckett repeated, looking askance at her husband. He shrugged, a little shamefaced.

"Playing a hunch," he explained.

"And it might have paid off," Vikram replied. "I found that both flower shops delivered bouquets to the same room at the same hospital yesterday, shortly before the murders."

"What?" Ryan reached for the paper in Vikram's hand. "That can't be a coincidence."

"Doesn't seem like it," Vikram agreed. "Both orders were paid in cash, buyers didn't leave their names. At flower shop number one, the buyer ordered a 'Tropical Assortment,' and shop number two has an 'Exotic Arrangement' - both are about the same price, and both were sent to the same person."

"This is awesome," Castle gushed, grinning from ear to ear. "We just cracked this case wide open. The person in the hospital room is the key to the whole thing, mark my words. Maybe it was a CIA agent who got injured in the line of duty and uses tropical flowers as a form of coded communication with the rest of his team."

"Dude," Esposito said, raising his eyebrows in an expression of extreme skepticism.

"Not the CIA again," Ryan sighed.

Beckett merely rolled her eyes. "Wild theories aside," she said firmly, "how can we find out who was in that hospital room on that day?"

"I'm not sure." Vikram made a face. "I called the hospital, but due to privacy laws they couldn't tell me the patient's name. I could hack into their database using a backdoor decryption protocol that would... What?" he asked, seeing the others all staring at him in disbelief.

"Bro," Esposito said slowly, "that would be illegal."

"Oh. Right."

"We can try to get a warrant for those records," Ryan said, dubiously.

"No judge is going to give us a warrant based on this craziness," Beckett sighed. They all fell silent, stymied.

"Captain?" came a voice from the hallway. They all turned to see a uniformed officer standing in the hallway beside a familiar-looking young man with hunched shoulders and wide eyes.

"What's going on?" Beckett asked, pushing herself up onto her feet with a bit of difficulty.

"You asked us to bring back the delivery driver, Larry," the officer explained.

"Uh, there must be some mistake," Castle said, confused. "This is Guillermo, the delivery guy from the first flower shop. We already talked to him."

"Well, I went into the _second_ flower shop and said 'I'm looking for Larry' and the owner gave me this guy," said the officer.

"What?" Beckett stepped forward, equally confused. "I don't understand. Are you Guillermo or Larry?"

"Um." The young man winced, staring at the floor, his cheeks turning dark red. "Both, ma'am."


	4. Chapter 4

"Okay," Beckett said as she entered Interrogation One with Castle close behind. "Well, your driver's license says that you're Guillermo Lopez, is that correct?"

"Yeah," nodded the young man, hunched over in his chair, looking very nervous. "I mean, yes, ma'am."

"So who is Larry?" she asked, sitting down smoothly in the chair that Castle pulled out for her.

"See, the owner, Mr. Goldman," Guillermo explained hesitantly, "uh, he said Guillermo is too hard to remember so he just decided to call me Larry." His mouth compressed briefly in annoyance. "It's no use arguing with him so I just go with it."

"I see." Beckett nodded slowly. The story was easy enough to believe, given what Ryan and Esposito had said about the florist's abrasive personality. "So," she continued, "you drive the delivery truck for both of the flower shops."

"Yeah, and a couple of others too," the young man agreed.

"And you sell drugs along the way?"

"What?" Startled, he sat up straighter, looking outraged. Castle had to hold back a grin; his wife's use of the element of surprise had had the desired effect.

"Cocaine, specifically," she said coolly, fixing their suspect with an almost bored gaze, as if to say that it was all settled.

"No," Guillermo denied vehemently. "No, I never sold drugs. That was Lisa, okay? It was all Lisa."

Ah! Now they were getting somewhere. Castle could see from the way Beckett tilted her head that she was having the same reaction.

"Okay," she said. "Tell me about Lisa and the drugs."

Guillermo scowled, twitched, sighed, and finally began to talk. "I caught her one day, okay? She dropped her purse and these little bags fell out. She was pretty pissed that I saw. But I told her not to worry about it, I won't turn her in. I mean, who would take my word over hers anyway? Right?" He looked beseechingly at Castle, who shrugged, remembering their conversation earlier about the type of people who sold drugs. It was certainly true that Guillermo fit the drug-dealer stereotype better than Lisa, if not the reality.

"Go on," Beckett prompted.

"So then Lisa found out that I drive for other florists too, and she had this idea to deliver the drugs in the flowers," the young man continued, sighing, his eyes downcast again. "I shoulda said no. I knew it was a bad idea."

"She promised you a cut," Castle guessed, and the kid nodded, still staring at the table.

"Yeah, and I really needed the money," he said almost inaudibly.

"Okay," Beckett said, her tone softening slightly. "Tell us about the hospital delivery."

Guillermo's head came up again, his eyes flashing surprise and then resignation. "You know about that? Yeah," he said, "it was supposed to be like a test run, you know? To see if the plan would work. The guy Lisa was getting the drugs from, his aunt was in the hospital, so he arranged it with Lisa to send her flowers with drugs hidden in them. I was just supposed to slip the bags into the bouquets and deliver them."

"And not get caught," Castle added. Guillermo scowled.

"Yeah," he agreed bitterly, "not that Lisa cared too much about that part."

"Okay," Beckett said, "so walk us through the process. Lisa gives you the bouquet and the bags of cocaine…"

"Right," the young man nodded. "Then I drove to the other shop, Marian loaded up the other order and I slipped the bag into it." He shook his head ruefully. "I was so nervous I knocked them both over, and Marian came to help pick them up and get the flowers straightened out. I was sure she would see the drugs, but she didn't."

"So Marian didn't know anything about any of this?" Castle asked. Guillermo shook his head.

"Uh-uh, no way. She would have ratted us out for sure."

"What was the name of the patient?" Beckett asked. "The drug dealer's aunt, you said?"

"I don't remember," the young man groaned, his chin dropping toward his chest in defeat. "I know you won't believe me but it's true. I swear. I just deliver the flowers. I didn't kill anyone."

* * *

"So, what do you think?" Beckett asked, a few minutes later, as the team reconvened at the murder board.

"Ehh, I don't buy the delivery boy as the killer," Ryan said, shaking his head. "There's no way he invented a complicated story like that, if you ask me."

"Yeah," Castle agreed. "Besides, what's his motive? He stood to make some nice cash on the side from Lisa's drug scheme, but if he kills her, he loses out on that."

"I tend to agree," Beckett said slowly. "We can charge him with transporting drugs, though, so I'm keeping him in holding overnight. And he doesn't have much of an alibi for the murders." Just like the two store owners, Guillermo had told them that after making the last delivery the previous evening, he'd gone home and spent the rest of the night watching TV alone.

"So we're nowhere again," Ryan went on, "although we'll see what we can do about tracking down Lisa's drug supplier."

"Yeah, unis didn't find anything in her dorm room," Esposito added, "and we talked to her roommate again; she swears she doesn't know anything about Lisa and drugs either. Looks like she kept it confined to the flower shop."

"Hmm," Beckett said, pursing her lips as she studied the murder board. "Well, Vikram is going through Lisa's phone records and emails again, and we'll see if we can identify the supplier from that."

"And we've covered everything we can for today," Castle said, putting his hand on her elbow and turning her toward the exit. "It's getting late. Time to go home."

"Oh, wait," she said, still talking to the boys over her shoulder even as Castle was steering her away, "let's not forget to check on the-"

"We got it, Captain," Esposito called after her. "Go home."

"Good night!" Ryan added, and she shook her head in mock exasperation, allowing her husband to guide her into the elevator. He was right, after all: it had been a long day, she was tired, and there was no need for her to stay. One of the perks of being captain was the ability to leave at a reasonable hour, and if she sometimes needed a gentle reminder to take advantage of that freedom, then Castle, her sweet man, was always there to provide it.

So she didn't argue, but gave him a soft smile and leaned against him as the elevator doors closed around them.

* * *

Castle started the dishwasher going, wiped his hands on a towel, and cast a final look around the kitchen to make sure he had put everything away. Satisfied, he turned toward the loft's main space. His gaze landed on his wife, sitting on the couch in the living-room area. Her feet were up on the coffee table, one of the baby-name books sitting open on her rounded belly, but she wasn't looking at the book; her eyes were unfocused, staring off into nothing.

"Hey," he said softly, moving across the room to sit down next to her. "Everything okay?"

"Hmm?" She blinked, coming back to earth. "Oh... yeah."

"Is it Lanie?" he guessed, and Kate sighed, leaning against him. Her cheek settled against his collarbone as his arm slid around her.

"I'm going to miss her so much," she said softly, her voice thick with repressed emotion. Castle nodded slowly, feeling some of her sorrow himself.

"I know. We all will. But she hasn't decided yet, right? She might not even leave."

"Yeah," Kate agreed, but she didn't sound convinced. "I think she will, though. She'd feel too guilty about putting her own career ahead of her parents' needs."

Castle made a quiet noise of understanding, but didn't comment. He sensed that there was more on Kate's mind, so he waited for her to tell him what it was.

He didn't have to wait long. "What if that's what I would be doing?" she said after a brief silence. His brow furrowed as he tried to understand.

"What do you mean?"

She sighed, pressing herself more firmly into his embrace. "Putting my career ahead of our family. If I go back to work after maternity leave."

"Kate, no," he said, surprised. He knew she had been thinking about what she wanted to do after the baby arrived, but this particular worry seemed out of the blue. "It's not like that," he insisted. "Lots of women go back to work after having babies, and they're still great moms. If that's what you decide you want to do, we'll make it work."

"But I'd be gone so much. I'd hardly even see her."

"Of course you'd see her," he insisted, pulling away slightly so that he could turn her face toward his with a gentle hand on her cheek. "I'll bring her to visit you at the office, and we'll have all night and every weekend together. It'll be fine, sweetheart. If going back to work is what you want to do, then that's what Gnocchi and I want you to do."

Kate gave him a wan smile, though her eyes were still troubled. "As long as you're sure."

"I'm sure," he said firmly, and leaned down to brush his lips softly across hers. She stretched up and lifted her hand to the back of his neck, pulling him back in for a second, longer kiss.

"Okay," she breathed against his mouth when they parted. "But we really have got to stop calling her Gnocchi."

He grinned a little and reached for the book balanced precariously on the swell of their daughter. "Okay," he said, opening it to the first page, "let's see what we've got. Abigail, Acacia, Adina, Agatha..."

* * *

"Morning, Captain. Morning, Castle," said Esposito as Beckett and Castle stepped off the elevator, just in time to see Aragon escorting a middle-aged man in jeans and a plaid shirt into the interview room.

"Good morning," Beckett responded. "Who's that?"

"Oh," Ryan said, joining them as they moved toward Beckett's office, "this was Javi's idea. Remember how ballistics identified the gun that was used in both murders, but it had been reported stolen?"

"Sure," Beckett agreed.

"I figured we'd follow up with the former owner," Esposito continued. "You know, just cover that base since we're not getting much of anywhere with the other stuff."

"Good thinking."

"Still no luck identifying Lisa's drug supplier?" Castle asked as Beckett hung up her coat and purse.

"Nope." Ryan shook his head. "And nothing on the hospital patient either. I wrote up a request for a warrant, but I don't have high hopes for it."

"Okay," Beckett said, "well, let's see what this guy has to say."

* * *

"Pete Davis? Thanks for coming in," said Esposito as he and Ryan entered the interview room. "I'm Detective Esposito, and this is Detective Ryan." The other man stood from his seat on the couch, and they all shook hands.

"Sure thing," Pete said, "although I'm not sure I can be any help to you."

"Well, we just want to make sure we have all our bases covered," Espo replied as they all sat down again. "Now, you reported your weapon as having been stolen in July 2014, is that correct?"

"Yep," Pete nodded, shifting on the couch, his hands clasped in his lap. His expression was open and friendly, but Esposito had a feeling that the other man's fidgeting was a tell. And without even looking at his partner, he knew that Ryan was thinking the same thing.

"Where was the gun kept in your home?" Ryan asked, his tone perfectly casual, his body language relaxed as he opened his little notebook.

"Oh, uh, I have a gun safe in my front hallway," Pete responded easily.

"Hmm," Ryan hummed, making a note. "And was anything else taken from your home?"

"No, just the gun."

"How did the thief get in? Break the lock?"

"No, the lock wasn't broken. Uh, I guess I must've left the door unlocked or something."

"Okay." Ryan made another note, nodding to himself. Esposito saw his cue and took up the lead.

"So," he said, letting just a hint of skepticism creep into his tone, "someone broke into your home without damaging the lock or the door, opened your locked safe and stole your gun, but didn't take anything else?" As Pete nodded uncertainly, Esposito narrowed his eyes and went on, "Do you have a TV in your home, a laptop, maybe an XBox or PS4?"

"Yeah, I have a laptop and a PS4," Pete acknowledged, dropping his eyes toward the floor in a clear sign of submission. Esposito pressed the advantage.

"So the thief didn't bother to grab the computer and gaming console, but he did somehow open your locked safe and take your gun." He folded his arms across his chest. "Why don't you cut the crap and tell us what really happened, Pete."

"Okay. Okay, fine." Pete scrubbed his hands over his face, sighing loudly. "I lied, okay? I sold the gun. I know I shouldn't have, but I needed the money."

Esposito and Ryan exchanged a look. "You sold the gun?" Ryan repeated. "Under the table, you mean."

"Yeah." Pete grimaced. "I didn't want to go through all the rigamarole they make you do when you sell it legally. And this friend of mine said he knew a guy who was looking to buy a gun but didn't have a license, and was willing to pay a little extra." He lifted his head and stared at them. "But he swore he just wanted it for protection, that's all. My friend said that this guy owned a store and got nervous that someone might try to rob him, so he just wanted the gun to make him feel safer. I wouldn't'a sold it to him otherwise."

Esposito leaned forward, the back of his neck prickling with anticipation. "You said this guy owned a store. What kind of store?"

"Oh," Pete shrugged, "a flower shop, I guess. Why?"


	5. Chapter 5

"Sure, I have a gun," Frank Rossi admitted readily, his large form once again sitting awkwardly on the chair in Interrogation One. "Licensed and registered, all above-board. I keep it behind the counter in my shop, but I haven't ever needed it."

"According to our records, the gun you have registered in the system is a .22, is that correct?" Beckett asked, and Frank nodded.

"Yep. Didn't think I needed anything stronger than that."

"And you don't own any other firearm? Even an unregistered one?" She gave the florist a hard stare, but it was all for show. She expected a denial, and got it.

"No," Frank said firmly. "Absolutely not."

"Okay." Beckett closed the file folder on the interrogation table and flicked a significant look sideways at Castle. "Thanks for coming back in, Mr. Rossi."

* * *

"Mr. Goldman, you're not licensed to own or carry a handgun in New York City," Ryan said as he and Esposito sat across from Albert in Interrogation Two. "Yet, our officers found one hidden in your apartment, and it's the same caliber that was used to kill both Lisa and Marian. Would you care to explain?"

"No," replied the elderly florist immediately, scowling down at the table surface rather than meeting their eyes. "I don't have to tell you anything. I know my rights."

"Okay," Esposito said slowly. "Well, yeah, you do have the right to remain silent, but I gotta tell you, possession of an unlicensed firearm is a pretty serious crime."

"And the D.A. doesn't tend to look too kindly on people who refuse to cooperate with an investigation," Ryan added.

"I know my rights," Albert repeated, but less confidently now. "I want a lawyer."

"Okay." Ryan and Esposito looked at each other and shrugged. "Well, if that's what you want, sir."

They both rose from their seats and started toward the door. In the observation room on the other side of the one-way mirror, Castle turned to Beckett and said, "Five... four... three..."

"Wait," Albert called, lifting his head. Castle smirked and fist-pumped as Ryan and Esposito paused by the door.

"Yeah?" Espo said shortly. Albert stared at them, his face scrunched into a disgruntled scowl.

"Was it... was it really just about drugs? This whole thing?" The elderly florist sounded more uncertain than he had in all the times they'd spoken to him previously.

"What do you mean, this whole thing?" Esposito asked, moving back toward the table.

"What do you mean, 'just' about drugs?" Ryan added, joining him. The two detectives resumed their seats.

"I thought..." Albert searched their expressions anxiously. "Lisa was acting so skittish, and then I saw her fiddling with the flowers. I thought she was stealing my secrets. A lot of other breeders in this area would love to get their hands on my prize-winning orchids. I breed them myself, you know," he added with a touch of his usual pride.

"Yeah, we heard," Esposito muttered.

"It... it wasn't about the flowers at all?" Albert asked querulously, his gaze flitting from one detective to the other and back. "Lisa was... was involved with cocaine?"

"That's right," Ryan said slowly. "She was selling cocaine, and apparently had the idea to hide the drugs in flower bouquets for delivery."

"And... and that other woman? At the other store?"

"Marian? She had nothing to do with it," Esposito told him. "She just sold flowers."

Albert was silent for a long moment, breathing heavily. His face was ashen. "I thought it was my orchids," he said at last, almost to himself. "My god, what have I done?"

* * *

"This definitely goes down as one of the weirder ones," Ryan commented as he erased the lists of suspects, witnesses, and evidence from the murder board.

"Weird? Try stupid," Esposito grumbled, dropping the victims' photos into the recycling bin. "I can't believe that guy actually killed two people over flowers."

"Premeditated, too," Castle commented, shaking his head incredulously. "He took his gun with him when he followed Guillermo to the other flower shop, then waited in the alley until he saw Marian closing up and preparing to leave, and shot her. Then went back to his own store to kill Lisa."

"It's bad enough he killed the one who was actually breaking the law," Esposito complained, "but Marian was completely innocent. He just saw her picking up the vase that Guillermo knocked over, and jumped to conclusions."

"Who knew breeding orchids was such a violent hobby?" Beckett quipped. "Good job on this one, guys."

"Thanks, Cap."

"Thanks, Beckett."

She gave the detectives a nod and went back into her office. With the case wrapped up, she could leave the boys to complete the paperwork, which she would sign off on in the morning. Her desk was otherwise clear, she saw with satisfaction, so there was nothing else standing between her and a quiet evening at home with her husband.

* * *

"Another delicious dinner, babe," Kate said, leaning back in her chair with a hand resting in its newly accustomed spot on her belly. But an instant later she was grimacing and shifting in her seat.

"Braxton-Hicks again?" Castle asked as he rose to begin clearing the dishes. The false contractions had begun recently for Kate, and were still infrequent at this point in her pregnancy, but occasionally bothersome.

She nodded. "Yeah, they're not really that bad, but she's also extra active right now. I guess she likes your cooking too," she said, offering a slightly strained smile.

"Why don't we go for a walk?" he suggested. "That usually calms her down, doesn't it? It's not too cold out there tonight."

"Sure. That sounds good."

A few minutes later they were strolling slowly down the city streets, hand-in-hand, enjoying the crisp night air. They didn't need to say much; they were content just to be together, sharing the moment.

A soft huff of laughter from his wife broke Castle out of a dreamy reverie about taking this same walk with their little girl between them, her tiny hands gripping theirs as she toddled along the sidewalk. He glanced sideways to see what Kate had found so amusing, and discovered that their wandering feet had brought them back to the scene of Marian Jefferson's death. Frank Rossi's flower shop was closed at this hour, a remnant of police crime-scene tape fluttering in the breeze at the top of the doorway.

"I wonder what'll happen to Albert's orchids while he's in prison," Kate mused, studying the blooming display that they could see through the window. "He doesn't have any family to take over the shop. All the flowers will die."

"They'd die anyway," Castle said, and then mentally kicked himself for the morbid thought, but his wife just nodded.

"Yeah. But while they're alive, they bring people so much pleasure." She tilted her head, still looking at the flowers. "And there are so many different kinds, all shapes and sizes and colors. Something for everyone."

"Mm," he agreed, letting his own gaze drift across the rows of blooms.

"You know," he said suddenly as a thought struck him, "a lot of flower names are also used as girls' names."

Kate huffed again, rolling her eyes affectionately, giving him a tolerant nod. "Yes, that's true," she agreed, humoring him.

"Like Daisy," he went on, gesturing at the window. "Rose, Violet, Marigold."

"Petunia," Kate added, teasing him with a nudge of her elbow in his ribs. "Jasmine. Zinnia." Then she paused as her gaze fell on the pure white display at the end of the row. "Lily," she breathed, lifting a hand to her lips, her eyes sparkling.

"Lily!" he repeated, amazed that he hadn't thought of it before. It was Kate's favorite flower, after all, and he knew it had been her mother's favorite as well. "Lily Castle," he said tentatively, trying it out, his eyes seeking Kate's face to gauge her reaction.

"Lily Johanna Beckett Castle," she said, turning fully toward him, her whole face alight with the smile she couldn't hold back. He felt his own cheeks stretching with the force of his answering grin.

"It's perfect," he exulted, and they hugged each other tightly, laughing their delight into the nighttime sky.

* * *

 _Episode beta work by amtepe and ivyandtwine._

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